A freeloading passenger who said he was going to a parole appointment instead stabbed a Bronx livery driver in the neck — and then stole his cab, police and the knifed man said Thursday.

Driver and grandfather Marcos Ramon Rivera-Peralta said he had a bad feeling about his passenger when they arrived at his destination and he pretended to make a call to someone to get the cab fare.

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"The guy is a criminal," the 67-year-old Rivera-Peralta said Thursday from his bed at Lincoln Hospital, where doctors used five stitches to close an inch-long wound. I saw the phone wasn't working. He wasn't talking to anybody."

Rivera-Peralta, who has five kids — including two cops, one with the NYPD — and three grandkids, said he picked up the suspect about 6:40 a.m. Wednesday at Jefferson Place and Boston Road, near Crotona Park.

Driver and grandfather Marcos Ramon Rivera-Peralta said a passenger "stabbed me" and then the attacker got behind the wheel of the cab and took off. (Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News)

The creep said he needed to go to E. 134th St. and Lincoln Ave., about 3 miles away in Mott Haven, because he had an appointment with his parole officer.

When Rivera-Peralta got there, the suspect made a show of saying he was going to call someone to bring him money for the fare. Instead, he pulled out "a big knife" and struck.

"He stabbed me," the driver said, simulating the horrific attack and pointing to his wound.

Rivera-Peralta said the passenger was going to call someone on the phone to bring him money for the fare when he pulled out "a big knife" and stabbed him in the neck. (Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News)

After stumbling from his Toyota Camry, Rivera-Peralta walked a quarter-mile to the 40th Precinct stationhouse to report the knifing.

The attacker, meanwhile, got behind the wheel of the cab and took off, driving over the Willis Avenue Bridge and ditching the car on E. 124th St., between Second and Third Aves., in East Harlem.

The suspect, believed to be in his 30s, was still being sought. He left the knife in the cab, giving cops hope of recovering fingerprints or DNA.

Police studied the cab's surveillance footage and released these images of the passenger who stabbed driver Marcos Ramon Rivera-Peralta in the neck. He is estimated to be from 25 to 35 years old, 5'7" to 6'0" in height and 180 lbs. He wears glasses and was last seen in a gray 3/4 length coat and gray sweatpants. (NYPD)